Stuart Broad believes England can still defend their ICC World Twenty20 title, despite defeats in their past two matches that leave them on the brink of elimination.

Broad, the captain, said he regretted the "unacceptable" loss of two wickets in the first over of his side's opening Super Eight match against West Indies on Thursday, which undermined England's attempt to chase a victory target of 180 in Pallekele.

Even after Eoin Morgan, with a fine unbeaten 71, and opener Alex Hales, with 68, had kept faint hope alive in a century stand, Broad's team fell 15 runs short of what they thought might be an achievable target.

England know they must now defeat New Zealand back at the same venue on Saturday if they are to retain realistic hopes of returning to Colombo next week for the knockout stages.

Broad, however, remains upbeat. "We hope we've got four games left in this World Cup," he said. "We back the guys up there [at the top of the order]; we know they're all dangerous players. But losing wickets in the first over, especially, is not acceptable."

England's latest setback followed a record defeat against India in their final Group A match last weekend, and was all the more dispiriting because they thought they had done well to restrict West Indies to 179 for five. "It's disappointing," Broad said. "At the halfway stage, we thought we'd done a good job, especially after the start they got, on an absolutely belting track. Batsmen would have wanted to roll it up, and take it with them everywhere."

The openers Johnson Charles and Chris Gayle both made half-centuries, and shared a 100-partnership for the first wicket. But Broad said: "We thought we had them probably just below par, very chaseable. So to then lose two wickets like we did, in a disappointing manner, was frustrating, but I thought we rebuilt pretty well.

"It was always going to take some overs out of the game, because we couldn't afford to lose more. We still tried to keep wickets in hand, and explode in the last eight, but we didn't quite get there."